DINING out is a common or garden event these days. The problem is that now public troughing is the norm, many kitchens make the pork connection. They serve swill.
Largely this is because of the quality and provenance of the ingredients.
I am convinced, for instance, that there is a business out there somewhere called www.craptomatoes.com, supplying salad stuffs for pub lunches and onions so strong they would bring tears to the eyes of a cathedral gargoyle.
When I was a child eating out was something really special.
At our favourite hotel the waiter was also a local farmer. He raised the pig on your plate, bottle fed the lamb cutlets in winter and, I believe, was once briefly married to 56lb of Maris Piper potatoes.
This was when Britons had never had it so good, or so infrequently. So we made our way in the family cars. The Stunning Austin 1100 with optional floor and a Wolseley furnished after the style of a pair of cavalry twill trousers.
On the other side of Europe, harnessed to the yoke of Soviet communism, the Czechoslovakian car industry was reduced to building fast attack tractors for the Red Army.
How times have changed. Since the first Octavia rolled off the line at Mladá Boleslav progress has been steady and includes the, er, ‘interesting’ Roomster.
Now you may look at this utility family car and laugh. I must be more objective, but allowed myself a small titter, heavily muffled against the cold.
Externally the Roomster’s shape is more functional than attractive, although you could say it was cute. Perhaps they should have called it the Skoda Hamster.
There is little point in me telling you about the 1.9-litre TDi Roomster’s performance because, frankly, there isn’t really any. Rather the focus falls on family-friendly practicality and clever use of space.
There is, for the £14,000 price tag, smoothness, comfort and a fair amount of equipment including air conditioning, cruise control, electric windows, parking sensors, ABS, ESP and an MP3 player.
Look at this though. The panoramic glass roof gives as good a view of the firmament as the Hubble telescope and for those with an interest in stovepipe hats, is almost as far away.
Every nook and cranny of the Hamster has been pressed into practical use, there’s even a 12 volt socket in the boot.
Figuratively speaking it's a car of two halves. The driving room is at the front and, oh let’s call it the dining room, is at the back. A variable seating system allows for different human and cargo areas including a split level adjustment for the boot space.
Just the job then for taking the family out to eat and certainly in better taste than the average pub lunch tomato.

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